A limiting belief is a belief that you hold about a situation outside of your control or about yourself that blocks you back from achieving your preferred future. In short, it causes your performance to be suboptimal and creates stress even if results are achieved.

When we experience a limiting belief, success is hard if not impossible. Here’s why: a belief is simply a conviction that we trust as being true. Our beliefs shape the patterns in our minds that help us react to situations in life. If those beliefs are positive, positive things happen; If those beliefs are negative, you know what happens…

Think about it like this: if you had the belief that building your business is simple, wouldn’t you approach the act of building a business with more ease and confidence. If you carried the belief that building your business is hard, wouldn’t you feel like you’re in a battle every time you work to get business? Of course, you would!

You can easily see how our limiting beliefs hold us back.

Limiting beliefs come in a few flavors. Understanding the type of limiting beliefs you’re faced with can help you overcome them. Here’s a quick description of 4 types of limiting beliefs.

Environmental: a belief that an environmental condition outside of your control will not allow you to succeed. An example looks like this: this real estate market will not produce any listings.

Interpretation: putting a negative spin on a situation or an event. You make up a negative story in your mind. An example looks like this: you read a text message and insert a negative meaning to what the person said.

Assumption: something will not work in the future because it didn’t work in the past. An example looks like this: my database will not do business with me because I’ve never gotten them to work with me before.

Drunk Monkey: Deeper seated belief about a personal shortcoming. Usually some form of an “I am” statement. An example looks like this: I am no good on the phone. Or, I am just not cut out to lead a team.

When you encounter something that triggers a limiting belief, you run a “program” automatically. Your stress response is engaged – which creates a negative thought and negative emotion which leads to action. As you know, the actions usually do not support you achieving success and happiness when it comes from stress. And over time, this can create a habit loop.

Let’s get past this! We do that by shifting the mental picture of the situation or belief enough to take better action that will start to replace the habit. Belief change requires action and our mindset helps to create the action.

The goal is to examine the belief, realize that the belief is not true, and then take an action that is more conducive to achieving success.

Here are easy frameworks to break up and get past each of the 4 types of limiting beliefs. When you identify a limiting belief, you can easily run it through these frameworks to help you create a better action.

Environmental:
■ What’s in your control?
■ What’s out of your control?
■ Is there anyone that is/has ever been successful in this same situation?
■ What can you learn from them that you can apply within your control?
■ Based on that, what is your next step?

Interpretation:
■ What’s another way to look at this?
■ If you looked at it that way, what feeling do you have now?
■ If you were to have thought & feeling, what would you do now?
■ What’s the first step you’re going to take now?

Assumption:
■ Just because it happened that way before, does it mean that it will 100% happen that way again?
■ What else is possible?
■ How do you know that a new possibility is possible?
■ If that were possible, what could you do to make that come true?
■ Great, what’s the first step you’re going to take?

Drunk Monkey:
■ How do you know the belief is true?
■ How do you know the belief is not true?
■ Can you picture how it’s not true in your mind? What does that look like?
■ If that new picture were true, what can you now do?
■ What’s the first smallest step you can take to prove it to yourself now?

When you shift a perception enough to take different actions, you’ll see the belief is no longer true.

Do you have a limiting belief that you know is holding you back from a big business AND an Xperiential life? Book a free 30-minute consultation to move past the roadblock and move toward your preferred future!